Gourmet Hunter - Chapter 198 (Patreon)

Chapter 198: Things You Must Never Do

Bisky planned to use Antomu as Luo's test after a year, so she spared his life.

Sparing his life did not mean she would save him out of kindness. When she saw Antomu escaping on his own, she wasn't really surprised.

After all, someone who could be the owner of the 230th floor of Heavens Arena was no minor character.

After escaping, Antomu finally relaxed, feeling completely safe.

Luo watched him, his thoughts quite complex. When they were below, Antomu was intent on killing him, while he initially just wanted to stop Antomu from taking Stajy's body.

Before the battle broke out, Uncle Lei's group of three had already died at Antomu's hands, showing the Hunter's disregard for human life.

If Bisky hadn't thought Antomu was still useful, she might have killed him on the spot without changing her expression.

This is the world of Hunters; even though they don’t take pleasure in killing, as soon as their interests are infringed upon, Hunters often won't hesitate to take a life.

"A year's time." Luo thought silently. Although he didn't want Antomu alive, he wouldn't act against him for now, partly because of Bisky’s request, and partly because he wanted to defeat Antomu by himself.

Luo withdrew his gaze and closed his eyes to conserve energy, hoping to quickly recover the strength he had expended. He still needed to leave a new taboo on the bas-relief stone door later.

Bisky was in the best condition among them. As she waited for Luo to regain his strength, she took out Stajy's Tears and played with it, her expression like that of a little girl who had received a beautiful new dress.

Her "Magic Beautician" ability not only provided professional beautification skills but also relieved fatigue. However, she didn’t use it on Luo, especially since Antomu, a stranger, was present.

Bisky’s Nen was unrelated to combat, but she had become a strong fighter. If her Nen was developed for battle, her strength could probably rise another level. This showed that she was quite capricious.

Fifteen minutes passed, and Luo’s breathing gradually stabilized, and he felt less uncomfortable than before.

At that moment, a whistling wind suddenly emerged from the entrance of the tomb, catching the attention of both Bisky and Luo. As they looked over, a black shadow emerged, carrying a large, blocky object in its mouth.

The shadow landed, dropping the object on the ground with a dull thud.

The shadow was a black cat, and the object, which was four to five times larger than itself, was square and covered with a solid black shell adorned with spikes the size of baby arms.

Beneath the shell was slightly translucent white flesh, which resembled the meat of a shelled shrimp.

It was an ingredient...

Luo furrowed his brows, guessing that this piece of meat was probably related to that crab-like monster, which meant the black cat had killed the monster without his knowledge.

At this moment, he found the black cat's actions increasingly difficult to predict.

"What do you mean?" he asked the black cat.

The cat shrunk down to its original domestic size, the size Luo had first encountered.

Hovering above the crab meat, it said, "This crab claw meat tastes good, but it's not so great raw. I'll bring it back and steam it later, and you can have a fifth of it."

The crab monster's claw was twenty times the size of this piece of crab meat. The black cat could only bring up so much, and it had eaten the rest below.

Hearing the black cat's words, Luo merely sneered, not bothering to reply.

Seeing Luo's reaction, the black cat continued indifferently, "This is at least a Grade-B ingredient. Don't you want it?"

"Is finding Grade-B ingredients difficult?" Luo retorted.

The black cat frowned in a very human-like gesture, scratching its chin with a sharp claw as it pondered how to get Luo to agree to help it cook.

"Is this your Nen beast?"

Watching the conversation between Luo and the black cat, Bisky looked surprised. It was rare to see such an intelligent Nen beast, but what puzzled her more was the black cat's attitude, which seemed more like an independent life form.

"In theory, yes," Luo replied helplessly.

"In theory?" Bisky was even more puzzled.

"It's derived from my Nen, but it's not under my control," Luo explained.

"I see..." Bisky nodded, understanding. This type of intelligent, uncontrollable Nen beast wasn’t unheard of, but regardless of whether it could be controlled, the existence of a Nen beast was primarily dependent on the Nen user.

In the history of Nen users, there had been Nen

 beasts that didn't obey their masters' commands, yet they would still fight for their masters.

Luo's Nen beast was likely this type; it showed no signs of a master-servant relationship, but it had appeared on its own to save Luo when he was in danger, which was a significant advantage of its autonomy.

However, Bisky was curious about the state of the black cat; regardless of the type of Nen beast, it was shaped by the Nen user's aura, and Luo's aura was clearly insufficient to maintain the black cat's manifestation. This was a particularly unusual aspect.

In fact, the energy the black cat used to maintain its form, and even to transform, was the aura it had previously consumed from Luo.

"Who are you calling a thing?" the black cat suddenly heard Luo refer to it as a thing, and its fur bristled.

"It's you," Luo said lightly.

The black cat quickly raised a sharp claw, but then retracted it; Luo couldn’t hurt it, and it couldn’t hurt Luo either. More precisely, if it hurt Luo, it would 'scatter its soul.'

From both their perspectives, whether or not there was an underlying rule constraining them, it was at an absolute disadvantage, and the only advantage it could gain from Luo was consuming his aura, but that required stringent conditions.

Thinking this, the black cat felt weary, its movements slightly listless as it retracted its claws.

It could only assert its dominance and act imposingly when Luo met the conditions that allowed it to consume his aura. Honestly, understanding its own origins, it was very unwilling, but helpless.

Seeing the black cat raise and then lower its claws, a flicker of interest passed through Luo's eyes; he knew too little about the black cat. However, since the black cat had saved him twice, he simply decided to keep it like an unruly cat.

Then, he remembered that the black cat had previously transformed into a scabbard, suggesting it might have the ability to transform. He was planning to lay down a taboo under the bas-relief stone door later, so he didn’t need to make a special trip; he could just have the black cat transform into a harp.

Thinking this, he prepared to negotiate with the black cat.

Before he could speak, however, the black cat suddenly moved.

Holding back a burst of irritation it couldn’t vent on Luo, it turned into a black shadow and charged at the three unconscious men lying on the ground.

"What are you doing?" Luo immediately called out.

Bisky’s eyes narrowed slightly; she felt a cold killing intent emanating from the black cat, which led her to conclude that it intended to kill those three men.

The black cat ignored Luo, brushing past the men on the ground, its claw piercing the hearts of all three, then swiftly retracting without a trace of blood.

Thus, those three unfortunate souls were killed by the black cat while still unconscious.

After quickly killing the three, the black cat appeared calm, raising a claw toward Antomu and saying coldly, "I’ll kill this one for you too. Now is a good time to strike, no need to listen to that muscle woman's words and wait a year to kill; it's too troublesome."

Antomu’s expression suddenly changed on the ground, feeling as if he had been shot while lying down.

After the black cat finished speaking, without waiting for Luo’s reaction, it actually moved to kill Antomu.

In the next second, a figure stepped in front of the black cat.

"Hmm?" The black cat’s silver eyes caught a glimpse of a small, attractive clenched fist—Bisky’s.

Boom, boom, boom...!

Moments later, the black cat’s head and face were covered in large bumps, its face completely distorted, trembling in front of the fiery-eyed Bisky.

Watching the black cat's miserable state, Luo's mouth twitched slightly. He had no interest in applauding Bisky; he only thought that he must never mistakenly call her a 'muscle woman' in front of her again.

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